The value of exercise in promoting and improving health is universally recognized. Health clubs and other organizations having equipment devoted to varying levels of exercise, from the benign to the arduous, have become popular. In general, such clubs serve a useful purpose by providing the opportunity for their members to exercise on a regular basis. A drawback, however, is the fact that in many cases, after paying a the, members lose interest, move away or for other reasons quit visiting the club. Thus, it is recognized that it would be desirable to have exercise equipment which would be readily available to the user.
In addition to the unavailability of some exercise devices, another limitation is that they are often large, cumbersome and expensive. Because of recognition of a need for simpler, easily accessible exercise equipment, and in reaction to the limitations in some conventional devices, smaller, portable and significantly less expensive exercise devices have been developed. Some of these devices have great popular appeal. In order for such devices to function in an acceptable manner, it is highly desirable that, in addition to being portable and inexpensive, they are sturdy and not readily damaged.
Properly designed exercise devices, whether of the large fixed variety, or the smaller portable type, have certain common characteristics. Generally, they exercise single muscles, and muscle groups, by providing a resistance to movement which must be overcome by the user during exercise. Since a muscle or muscle group can exert power only upon contraction, muscle tissue is beneficially exercised when it contracts to overcome the resistance. During exercise, muscular contraction is followed by a brief period of relaxation, which in turn, is followed by contraction as the musculature moves once more against the resistance.
Because muscular strength varies from one person to the next and, indeed, may vary from time to time in the same individual, it is worthwhile to provide an exercise device having some adjustability in resistance. In this manner, users of varying age, strength and health can be benefited from use of a single exercise device. In addition, it is desirable to provide adjustability of resistance for the individual who, over a period of use of the device, finds added strength requires increased resistance to provide a suitable challenge. Such adjustability is often readily achieved in large, fixed exercise devices where electrical controls, for example, can adjust a brake to load a flywheel. However, desired adjustability is substantially more difficult to achieve in a portable, hand held device. Thus, in view of the above mentioned benefits of portable exercise devices, it would be highly desirable to have such a device which would include a reliable adjustability capability.
Hand held exercise devices are popular. One such device enables the user to adjust torque in each of a pair of handles to provide a suitable rotational resistance over a broad range. Since resistance can be adjusted in each handle individually, a wide population of users, having disparate physical strengths, can benefit from use of the device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,581 discloses a novel exercise device which, used on a regular basis, provides the user with a suitable conditioning technique. The devices provides a capability of adjusting resistance over a broad spectrum while avoiding the problem of prior art devices in which, as the user backs off a nut to lower resistance, a point is reached, when, without warning to the user, the device comes apart and its internal components spill out. In fact, it was because of this limitation that it appeared advantageous to have an exercise device which was adjustable over a broad range of resistance levels without risk of damage thereto.
The limitations of the prior art exercise devices were overcome by the novel exercise device disclosed and claimed in the aforementioned patent in which a novel technique for varying torque resistance in the handle assemblies is disclosed. This exercise device affords a highly useful exercise device for efficient exercise of the musculature of the wrists, forearm and arms. However, after some experience in use of this device, it was noted that it had limitations if the user desired exercise for the chest and shoulder muscles, in addition to those of the wrist, arm and forearm. Thus, it became evident that it would be highly desirable to have a hand held exercise device having some of the advantageous features of the device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,581 but having, in addition, the capability of providing a novel means for exercise of the musculature of the chest and shoulders. Ideally, such a device would be efficient, inexpensive and capable of providing varying resistance to enable an exercise capability over a broad range of user strengths and physical conditions.